The Mountain of Ice and Fire

"Jeyne, you may leave us. I need to speak with the maester."

"Yes, Father."

"The Mountain has returned. Have him come to me."

"As you command, Father."

Jeyne curtsied and withdrew.

The study door closed softly once more.

"My lord duke, I fear the Mountain may lose control and harm the nobles of the North," Maester Potter said.

Lord Tywin said blandly, "I would be more concerned if he didn't."

"Oh? Why do you say that, my lord duke?"

The duke did not answer.

Slowly, Lord Tywin removed military whistle diagrams, snow salt production diagrams, chopsticks wrapped in red brocade, coinage diagrams, noodle machine diagrams, and the S-bend diagram from the drawer.

The maester looked astonished.

"My lord duke, did Ser Gregor give you the coinage diagrams and noodle machine diagrams before this? And the S-bend diagram too?"

"I had these long before Lord Oad reported the noodle machine and the S-bend to me."

The maester was speechless for a long moment.

Lord Oad's 'advice' was meaningless to the duke.

The duke was already fully aware of Gregor Clegane's every move, including his ingenious inventions.

"Gregor handed them to me personally," the duke said, watching the maester's astonished expression.

"He admitted that he designed all of these?" the maester murmured. He realized that he understood less than one percent of what the duke knew about Ser Gregor.

Lord Tywin seemed not to hear the maester's question, directly ignoring what he did not want to answer: "Maester, the gold mines of the Westerlands won't last much longer. What will become of the Westerlands when the gold mines are depleted?" The duke picked up the snow salt production flowchart. "Snow salt can become the second gold mine of the Westerlands, but it is not enough."

The maester nodded.

"The 'wood for iron' of chopsticks can effectively reduce weapon prices in three months and reduce the consumption of iron ore from the Iron Islands, but our purchase of iron ore can only increase, not decrease."

"Yes, we need to secretly stockpile large amounts of iron ore."

"The coordination of military whistles, war drums, and horns can enhance the combat power of our Westerlands legions and surpass our opponents in military warfare," Tywin said.

The maester was an amateur when it came to military affairs, but he knew that the duke was an outstanding military strategist who had become famous in the Seven Kingdoms at the age of seventeen during the War of the Ninepenny Kings, and at the age of eighteen, he had destroyed the two most powerful nobles in the Westerlands, exterminating them completely, leaving no one alive.

"Yes, my lord duke."

"Noodles can be sold throughout the Seven Kingdoms and even overseas, but this high-end noodle dish is only for the nobles. Just give this bit of profit to Gregor and Lord Oad. Casterly Rock only needs to collect a certain amount of taxes."

"A wise decision, my lord!"

"The S-bend only keeps the odor out of our toilets, and once it spreads, everyone can imitate it. The money from selling it is actually limited and can be completely ignored."

"Yes, my lord duke."

"Coinage, however, is the best way to increase the wealth of the Westerlands." Lord Tywin finally picked up the coinage diagram that the Mountain had given him. "When our gold mines are exhausted, the coins we mint ourselves will be a secretly hidden gold mine." Tywin looked at the coinage diagram with admiration in his eyes.

"Yes!" the maester answered cautiously.

The Mountain was secretly minting coins, but the duke seemed to approve of it. Could it be that the Mountain was not minting coins for himself alone but also for the duke?

This thought made the maester break out in a cold sweat.

The duke was privately minting coins?! This crime could be great or small. The great could rise to treason, and the king would strip the duke of his title, territory, and power; the small could be dissolved into nothingness. The king was the duke's son-in-law, the queen was his daughter, and the princes and princesses were his grandchildren. Behind closed doors, they were all one family.

But the duke had clearly told Jeyne that he was unaware of the Mountain's coin minting.

If the coin minting conspiracy were exposed, wouldn't the only one to be questioned be the Mountain!

The answer was obvious!

The maester broke out in another cold sweat.

He had served the duke for decades and always had an indelible sense of awe for the duke. Respect was respect, and awe was fear.

"But these are all trivial matters." A look of loneliness appeared on the duke's face. "The Lannister family has been passed down for thousands of years. When the gold mines are exhausted, the Lannisters must find other ways to survive. Otherwise, how can they continue to be passed down for thousands of years? The Lannister name is a thousand times more important than my Tywin's life." The duke's eyes suddenly fixed on the maester's face. "Maester Potter, do you have any good ideas?"

Maester Potter's heart was blank.

He had no good ideas at all.

If the duke hadn't said that the gold mines wouldn't last many more years, he wouldn't have realized this problem at all.

Every month, a steady stream of gold mine carriages drove along the Golden Road into the king's mint, showing off the wealth and grandeur of the richest family in the world. Who would have thought that this was the last glory of the Westerlands? It was like the brilliance before sunset.

"My lord, I have no idea about the future of the Westerlands," Potter said frankly, full of trepidation.

Lying to the duke was like courting death. The duke's eyes were sharp, and no one could match his ability to see people and things.

Suddenly, the maester understood why Ser Gregor had told the duke all his secrets. He also suddenly understood why the Mountain, the most heinous villain in the Seven Kingdoms, could comfortably commit evil deeds by the side of such an astute and ruthless duke.

Everything about Gregor was, in fact, no secret to the duke.

From the time Gregor began following the duke at the age of twelve until now, twenty years, he had never had any secrets from the duke, any secrets at all.

Everyone who thought Gregor had secrets and reported him to the duke was coldly watched by the duke. They secretly told the duke bad things about Gregor behind his back, but each time, the duke nodded to show that he knew. It turned out that the duke himself knew even more, deeper, and more thoroughly than these people said.

To bring down Ser Gregor in front of the duke, no slander was possible. Unless the duke himself wanted to destroy the Mountain.

Now that the Mountain had suddenly become intelligent and favored by the Seven Gods, his series of contributions had given the duke a new dawn, causing the anxious Lord Tywin to think about the future path of the Westerlands.

Maester Potter vaguely felt some clues, but he had no idea whether they were correct.

He only understood one thing: in the future, don't say anything bad about Ser Gregor in front of the duke, anything!

There was a very deep and special connection between the Mountain and the duke that outsiders could not understand at all. This special bond was different from the relationship between Tywin and anyone else.

Having figured this out, the maester suddenly understood the duke's earlier statement, 'I would be more concerned if he didn't hurt people'.

The Mountain's enlightened mind did not change his wickedness, and he was resented by the nobles. Perhaps that was exactly what the duke wanted.

*

Recommending the book "Rebirth of the Strongest Farmer", it's good.

Thank you to Little Worm for sleeping in and rewarding me, thank you!